EUROMED RWEL REGIONAL WORKSHOP GENDER, MARKETING

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EUROMED RWEL REGIONAL WORKSHOPGENDER,
MARKETING TRADE IN THE MEDA REGIONIstanbul,
14-16 April 2008

• OVERVIEW OF GLOBAL CONTEXT
• by CAMILLIA FAWZI EL-SOLH

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AIM OF OVERVIEW

• Provide insights into wider macro-economic and
  global context linking economic liberalization,
  trade, markets and gender.
• Contribute to strengthening EUROMED RWEL
  Consortium Partners in addressing gender
  implications of trade liberalization and markets

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DEFINITIONS

• Globalization

• Economic Liberalization

• Neo-liberal agenda of integrating national
  economies into global economy.
• Integration through mechanisms of trade in
• goods
• services
• foreign direct investment
• capital flows
• migration
• spread of technologies

• Neo-liberal process of achieving
  efficient/effective economic fiscal policies
  through
• dismantling government regulations
• supporting labour market flexibility
• promoting private sector
• opening domestic markets to foreign capital and
  investment

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DEFINITIONS (cont.)

• Foreign Direct Investment investment in foreign
  country through acquiring or establishing
  company provision of technical inputs and/or
  management control
• Tariff tax imposed on imported goods
• Non-Tariff regulations/legal requirement
  favouring domestic over imported goods

• Economies of scale factors leading to fall of
  average cost of production while output increases
• Value chain activities adding value to product
  at each stage of production
• Dumping companies export their goods at lower
  price than what they normally charge in
  own/domestic market

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WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION

• Major multilateral organization
• oversees global trade rules and settling of
  trade disputes
• Supports trade policies that
• promote access to previously protected markets
• reduce tariffs on imports
• accord foreign companies same market access as
  national companies

• MEDA Countries acceded
• Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Morocco, Tunisia, Turkey
• Observer status
• Algeria, Lebanon
• Non-Member/non-observer
• Syria, Palestine

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WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION (cont)

• General criticism against WTO includes
• adverse impact on poor developing countries (e.g.
  small farmers, loss of employment in industrial
  sector)
• rich/developed countries may not apply same trade
  rules to own economies (e.g. EU Common
  Agricultural Policy)
• skewed membership in favour of rich/developed
  countries
• Doha Development Agenda meant to
• address criticism against WTO
• make development centrepiece of Agenda
• to-date no conclusive agreement

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KEY INDICATORS OF
TRADE COMPETITIVENESS RELEVANT TO MEDA REGION

• institutions
• infrastructure
• macro-economic stability
• health and primary education
• higher education and training
• market efficiency
• technological readiness
• business sophistication
• innovation

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KEY INDICATORS OF BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT IN MEDA
REGION

• Ease of doing business
• Starting a business
• Dealing with licences
• Employing workers
• Registering property
• Getting credit
• Protecting investors
• Paying taxes
• Trading across border
• Enforcing contracts
• Closing a business

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KEY INDICATORS OF BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT INMEDA
REGION (cont.)

• Ranking MEDA Countries relative to 178 economies
  2008 (2007)
• Algeria 125 (125) (0)
• Egypt 126 (152) ( 26)
• Israel 29 (26) (- 3)
• Jordan 80 (79) (-1)
• Lebanon 85 (77) (-8)

• Morocco 129 (121) (-8)
• Palestine no data
• Syria 137 (134) (-3)
• Tunisia 88 (93) (5)
• Turkey 57 (65) (8)

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GENDER ASPECTS

• Globalization and Trade Liberalization
• Link to feminization of labour in sectors where
  females predominate (agro-processing garment
  production data entry financial services).
• Newly created jobs gains for women do not
  challenge gender stereotypes or gender-based
  labour market discrimination.
• De-feminization of labour women may lose jobs to
  male peers when export industries upgrade, or be
  pushed into insecure informal sector.
• Womens ability to benefit from trade
  liberalization affected by education, skills
  perceptions of gender roles unpaid economic
  activity.

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GENDER ASPECTS (cont.)

• Major World Trade Organization Agreements
• Agreement on Agriculture (AoA)
• - Women tend to be unpaid household labour their
  home-based production may be threatened by
  cheaper food imports tend to be low-paid wage
  workers in agro-processing.
• Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property
  Rights (TRIPS)
• Women as managers of natural resources threatened
  by patenting of hitherto freely available
  materials.
• General Agreement on Trade and Services(GATS)
• Crucial to women since tend to dominate in
  education and health sectors link with womens
  unpaid work.
• Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMS)
• Women predominate in small enterprises which may
  not be affected by national gender equality
  policies.

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GENDER ASPECTS (cont.)

• Major gender-specific criticism against WTO.
• Neglect to
• Incorporate 1995 Beijing Conference commitments.
• Accord market value to womens role and economic
  activities in the unpaid economy.
• Implement gender impact assessments of existing
  trade policies.
• Review regional/bilateral trade agreements that
  have social and economic implications for rights
  of women and men.
• Need for
• Gender sensitive monitoring indicators.
• Incorporating gender into trade analysis and
  policy formulation.
• Translating spoken commitments into action.

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GENDER AND MARKETS MAJOR ISSUES

• Factors affecting entrepreneurship regardless of
  gender
• business environment
• infrastructure
• macro-economic policies
• market efficiency
• technological readiness
• business sophistication
• innovation.
• But manifestations of social, legal and economic
  gender inequality may affect female entrepreneurs
  regardless of enterprise size.

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GENDER AND MARKETS MAJOR ISSUES (cont.)

• Female registered enterprises may be particularly
  subject to gender specific constraints e.g.,
• gender blind labour policies/regulations
• difficulty of employing educated/skilled workers
  
• difficulty of accessing telecommunication
  services
• difficulty of acquiring land
• exclusion from male dominated formal trading and
  marketing networks
• restrictions on physical mobility.

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GENDER AND MARKETS MAJOR ISSUES (cont.)

• Female micro- and small-scale entrepreneurs may
  be additionally affected by
• trade-related transformations of national
  markets
• gender and poverty blind national trade policies
• ineffective pricing strategies
• absent/ineffective advertising strategy
• limitations to introducing economies of scale
• non-financial services overlooking wider
  manifestations/ implications of gender
  inequality and traditional gender stereotyping.

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GENDER AND MARKETS MAJOR ISSUES (cont.)

• Female unregistered and home-based entrepreneurs
  particularly constrained by e.g.
• competition from dumped/cheaper imports
• cost of registering enterprise (e.g., liability
  to taxation)
• difficulty of accessing local trade networks and
  marketing channels local government trade
  support services
• cost of technology supporting economies of scale
• cost of improving product quality in competitive
  markets affected by trade liberalization.

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Gender and Empowerment

• Overall, womens increased participation in paid
  economy contributes to their empowerment.
• But much depends on
• Conditions of womens labour market
  participation (e.g., formal versus informal
  sector employment wage gaps skill training
  opportunities).
• Developments in trade-related sectors/sub-sectors
  where women are predominantly employed (e.g.,
  multinationals moving business to other
  countries due to comparative advantage such as
  lower labour costs).

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Gender and Empowerment (cont.)

• Conditions affecting enterprise
  development/operation e.g., female
  owned/managed enterprises competition from
  bigger producers.
• Womens control over use of income and profits.
• Good governance/rule of law in implementing
  gender sensitive regulations.

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IN CONCLUSION

• Promoting gender and poverty sensitive
  environment
• Integrate gender analysis in trade negotioations
  and policy formulation.
• Address business environment constraints
  affecting all entrepreneurs as well as gender
  specific factors affecting female
  entrepreneurship.
• Take into account that female micro- and
  small-scale entrepreneurs are not homogeneous
  population group one size does not fit all.

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IN CONCLUSION (cont.)

• Female entrepreneurs require additional support
  in
• accessing male dominated trade associations and
  marketing channels
• improving product quality link with value chain
• introducing economies of scale
• implementing value chain.

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IN CONCLUSION (cont.)

• Importance of female role models and female
  networks. Link with
• Business womens networks in MEDA countries.
• MEDA region-related business womens networks
• (e.g., Arab International Womens Forum
• www.aiwfonline.com)
• International business womens networks
• (e.g., Women Business International
  www.forwomenbusiness.com)

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IN CONCLUSION (cont.)

• Importance of links with advocacy activities by
  international networks e.g.
• Informal Working Group on Gender and Trade
• www.eldis.org/index
• International Gender and Trade Network
• www.igtn.org
• Women Working Worldwide Network
• www.poptel.org/uk
• Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and
  Organizing
• www.wiego.org

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• THANK YOU